Weighing my options to get a Case CLI for a Balance Transfer

[Dluvr22]

Here's my situation :

I've got my Chase Slate that I am seriously considering doing a BT on to get the 0% APR to pay down some of my CC debt this year and I need help figuring out what would option would have the highest probability of success.

First some background info 

I've got 3 Chase CC over the years. The Chase Freedom which I would have had for 3 years come March, Chase Slate which would be 2 years old also in March of this year and a Chase Amazon Prime VS that is 1 year and 1month old. I got the Slate with $ 2000 CL the 18 month BT promo option. At the time I also tranferred $5000 from my Freedom which had a $5500 CL and a $0 balance to the Slate and I transfered a sizeable balance from my other cards to the Slate which I have since paid off in full as of October of last year

Similarly when I opened the Amazon Card in 2015, I also transferred the avalable credit to the Slate leaving both my Amazon and Freedom with $500 CL each and the Slate with $8200 CL. Since then I have regualarly used the Amazon and Freedom and PIF before the end of the billing cycle to maintain 0% usage on my credit reports for those two cards and now the Slate also PIF as well.

I also have a checking and savings account with Chase which has been opened for over 10 years so we have a long relationship although since I moved to Minnesota 4 years ago where the nearest branch is in Wisconsin over 250 miles away  those accounts have been used very little .

Now I also have the following :

Amex Delta with $10000 CL, 10.74% APR and about  $2500 in charges that I am working on paying down. 

Amex BCE with $16000 CL, 15.49% APR  and about $3700 in charges that I'm also working on as well 

Sam's Club MC with $10,000 CL, 25.49 % APR and $0 in charges as I've moved the balance over to my Citi Diamond Preffered.

Citi Diamond Preferred $6,000 CL, 0% promo APR until 11/2018 and $4000 which I BT onto this card 3 months ago. 

Now I did take a hit for tranferring what amounts to 67% of the CL to the Citi Diamond Preferred but I've calculated exactly how much it would take to pay off the balance in the 24 months promo period and I"ve budgeted to pay slightly more than that each month so I'll be finished paying before the promo expires or in the worst case scenario have a sizeable amount paid of. As of this writing I've already got that down to 56% utilization.

Back to the Chase 

Last month ( I suppose it was their end of the year promotions) I received 3 different BT offers for my Chase Card. They're all 0%APR  BT with one offer ending 10/ 2017, another 11/2017 and a third ending 03/2018. I'd like to transfer the balance from my highest APR card, the Amex BCE to the Slate to pay it off during the promo period ending 03/2018 while still paying off the other 2 cards. 

My dilemma is that I don't wan to go above the 30% utilization ratio on this card if I can help it so I'm wondering what would be my best bet.

1. Call Chase and ask for a CLI on my Chase Freedom (oldest chase card)  and/or my Chase Amazon and subsequently tranfer that to my Slate to increase the limit .

2. Ask for a CLI on the Slate instead since it has seen more usage than the Freedom in the past year and just do the BT on that .

3. Open up a new line of Credit with Chase (Chase Sapphire Reserve perhaps....) and xfer the available credit from that to the Slate

I'm also going to reach out to Amex to requst a lower APR as well as that will help whatever balance is left on the card if any.

Now I do understand that spreading the balance among multiple cards to keep a lower utilization ratio on each card may be better in certain circumstances than having a high balance on one or two  cards and I do have a WF, Amex Gold  and a Capital One card all with $0 balance at the moment however I am more concerned about lowering my total usage over the course of this year at the expense of taking a slight hit to my score that will eventually come back up faster as the balance gets lower.

What would you folks do in this scenario?

[Gmood1]

IME, adding an additional card may yield better results in TCL. You're going to take a HP either way you go. I could be wrong though, I think your chances are better just apping another card and move the limits to where you need them. I'm not sure how much your current utilization will affect your chances.

[Anonymous]

I really wouldn't sweat going over 30% utilization on your Slate card. If it's only the one card and you have other cards with 0 balance, then the impact isn't going to be huge. Utilization has no memory, so unless you plan to apply for a car or mortgage loan in the near future, it's no big deal. It's easy to get caught up in the whole scoring aspect, but there's no reason to limit the options and flexibility your existing credit has to offer just to keep your score in a certain range when it only truly matters if you're applying for new credit. If it were me, I would take the hard pull on the Freedom card for a CLI and transfer what you need over to your Slate card to complete your balance transfer.

[Dluvr22]

thanks for the responses.

New Car Loan No. I am less than 18 months from paying off my vehicle in full and don't intend to take on another car loan.

Mortgage probably. I applied for and got approved for a mortgage loan last year but never found a place that suited my needs for an acceptable amount . The housing market was a sellers market last year and a lot of bidding wars so I bowed out  gracefully.

This year I may try again.

Good news is I had ~ 7,000  more in CC debt when I applied for the mortgage loan last year than I have right now. My total deb is almost half of what it was then.  Same can be said for my debt to income ratio which has undoubtedly dropped as well so I think I'll stand an even better chance If I move the debt to a 0% APR card as my minimum payment on the card would be less as well even though I plan to make more than the minimum payment monthly and since utilization hads no history if I can get it down a bit before reapplying for that mortage loan I should theoretically be ok.

[Anonymous]

Yeah as long as you won't be applying for the mortgage for a little while, I wouldn't have any reservations about taking the hard pull for more credit and doing the balance transfer to get everything over to the Slate card. Ideally, you should try to pay off everything you owe a few months prior to applying for the mortgage, then use 2 or 3 of your cards and only let them report a balance less than 5 or 10% of the total credit limit. You have the flexibility to "paint the picture" how you like, but carrying a balance month to month, even at 0% says "I spent more than I could afford" to a lender. Doesn't necessarily mean you won't get approved, but may warrant some explanation or taking a higher rate than you'd like to. When it comes to getting a 15 or 30 year loan, obviously getting the lowest rate possible is in your best interest, even if you have to wait a little longer to get your utilization down to less than 5 or 10%. Looking at your scores though, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to get them at or over 800 once your balances are paid off. If your car loan is coming down toward the end in 18 months, that's helping your scores as well.